Young Guns

Launched in January 2018, the Overwatch League (OWL) is the first large-scale concerted effort to build a competitive, global framework for an eSport that can rival the largest pro sports leagues. $3.5 million in prize money, a broadcasting deal with ESPN, and the purchase of OWL teams by celebrity owners including Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, set the stakes for the launch. The first season ended in a tense round of playoffs that climaxed in a suspenseful championship series in a sold-out Barclay's Center.

Austin Moorhead, a gamer who found himself fascinated by the emerging world of pro players, embedded himself during OWL's debut season with multiple teams, including the London Spitfire, which would go on to become Overwatch's first world champion. In YOUNG GUNS, he takes readers behind the scenes of the wild first season of a competition that just might become as ingrained in our culture as Sunday football, revealing a high-stakes, pressure-cooker world of profane teenagers who earn six-figure salaries, TV executives and traditional sports owners struggling to understand and conquer youth culture, and a game whose innovation progresses so fast that fans watch their favourite gamers practice for hours just to keep up with it. Told with perspective on the subculture and unrivalled access into how both the OWL and the teams that compose it have built themselves to succeed, YOUNG GUNS is a fascinating look at the ascendance of competitive gaming and the future of sports.

“" Young Guns tells the story of the world's first professional gaming league...[reveals] the inside story of the first championship."-- Publishers Weekly”

"...[T]his fast-paced, highly recommended book will appeal to readers interested in learning more about eSports and their growing popularity."--Library Journal
"Young Guns tells the story of the world's first professional gaming league...[reveals] the inside story of the first championship."--Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating, entertaining look at a growing phenomenon, Young Guns takes us behind the scenes of the gamers and opportunists redefining the meaning of sports. Austin Moorhead masterfully weaves a high-stakes business narrative with a hilarious romp."--Marshall Ulrich, extreme endurance athlete and authorof Running on Empty and Both Feet on the Ground
"A fast-paced, dramatic read....essential reading for anyone with an interest in the modern climate's esports explosion."--TheGamer
"Austin Moorhead gets inside the heads of the gamers... These eccentric characters may be playing a form of basketball, but they will never be confused for the real LeBron James. That's okay, because in a very different way they are just as captivating."--Filip Bondy, NewYork Times bestselling author of The Pine Tar Game
"George Plimpton + Hunter Thompson = Austin Moorhead. In Young Guns, Moorhead has written a compelling, hilarious and heartbreaking account of gamers and their games. Either that, or a survival manual for the coming apocalypse. Who knew that these young armchair athletes were engaged in the most brutal sport of all. The first great cultural chronicle of this new decade."--Sam Kashner, New York Times bestselling authorand editor-at-large at Air Mail
"Moorhead gives readers unprecedented access to the team dynamics and drama of esports while tracking the ambitious rise of the first global league. His year-long journey yields insight on the hard work and luck required to be an esports champion."--Christopher"MonteCristo" Mykles, Esports Personality and Former OWL Caster

An avid gamer, Austin Moorhead has worked as a consultant and investor. Young Guns is his first book. He lives in Los Angeles.

Launched in January 2018, the Overwatch League (OWL) is the first large-scale concerted effort to build a competitive, global framework for an eSport that can rival the largest pro sports leagues. $3.5 million in prize money, a broadcasting deal with ESPN, and the purchase of OWL teams by celebrity owners including Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, set the stakes for the launch. The first season ended in a tense round of playoffs that climaxed in a suspenseful championship series in a sold-out Barclay's Center.Austin Moorhead, a gamer who found himself fascinated by the emerging world of pro players, embedded himself during OWL's debut season with multiple teams, including the London Spitfire, which would go on to become Overwatch's first world champion. In YOUNG GUNS , he takes readers behind the scenes of the wild first season of a competition that just might become as ingrained in our culture as Sunday football, revealing a high-stakes, pressure-cooker world of profane teenagers who earn six-figure salaries, TV executives and traditional sports owners struggling to understand and conquer youth culture, and a game whose innovation progresses so fast that fans watch their favourite gamers practice for hours just to keep up with it. Told with perspective on the subculture and unrivalled access into how both the OWL and the teams that compose it have built themselves to succeed, YOUNG GUNS is a fascinating look at the ascendance of competitive gaming and the future of sports.

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